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From: R. Halevi
Subject: Self-attestation
Date: 23 Kislev 5781
And who issued the ID? The state. What if the state is wrong? What if someone changed their name but the ID has not been updated? What if their legal name differs from their Hebrew name?
Names are not as verifiable as you assume. We accept government-issued names because we trust the government to maintain accurate records in that context. But the trust is the foundation, not the document. The document is evidence of trustworthiness, not proof of truth.
The halakha has a concept for this: ne'emanut, reliability. A witness is believed not because their testimony can be independently verified, but because they are trusted to tell the truth. The Gemara asks: why do we believe one witness about certain matters? Because the Torah gave them ne'emanut, reliability, in that domain.
The identity block is similar. We accept what people claim because we trust them to describe themselves accurately. The specification does not verify. It extends ne'emanut: it treats the individual as reliable about their own identity.
Whether that trust is warranted is a separate question. The specification takes no position. It only provides the format for the claim.
—Dov Halevi
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